About 16 or 17 years ago, my husband and I drove from Alabama to Wyoming to get 4 goats.  We located the Nubian dairy goats we wanted online and contacted the breeder.  She hooked us up with a family in Kentucky that also ordered a goat from her, and we agreed to bring their goat to them in exchange for some help on the gas.

We left Alabama in our Dodge Caravan with a load of peaches.  I know that doesn't sound like it makes a lot of sense, but my husband grew up on the Birmingham farmer's market and had, over the years, run several small retail produce enterprises.  He knew produce.  And he knew Wayne Franklin, a farmer in Alabama that grew beautiful, grapefruit-size peaches.  We bought a load of peaches and planned on selling them along the way, to help defray some of the expenses of our trip.

It was a long trip.

We stopped at the Kansas City farmer's market to try selling some peaches, but got a bad feeling there.  There seemed to be people in power who had the market locked up, so we went on down the road.

As we started into Kansas, we pulled off at the first small town and found a mom-and-pop grocery store.  The produce manager was a black man whose eyes lit up when he saw that load of fresh Alabama peaches.  We sold him quite a few.

We must have sold some more along the way there in eastern Kansas, though my memory is not clear on that, because when we stopped for gas somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we had just one basket left that we were saving to give to the goat breeder we were going to see.  There at the gas station, we looked with wonder at the landscape of the Great Plains.

To Southern children, raised in the green hills of Appalachia, the flat vastness of the plains was like a foreign land.  Flatness as far as the eye could see, in any direction.  The concrete interstate bridge gave way to dirt and gravel road on either side of the highway, extending like a diminishing straight line -- due north and due south.  And there, way off in the distance, came a tiny puff of smoke.  We watched for many minutes as it slowly crept across the map of Kansas, toward the tiny oasis of the gas station.  Then, roaring up in a cloud of yellow dust, a truck appeared.

It was a beat-up old pickup, driven by a dusty cowboy, complete with Levis, boots, and cowboy hat.

My husband couldn't resist.  He went over, spoke for a moment with the cowboy, and led him over to our van.  He reached over to the basket of ripe, rosy peaches and picked out a big one.

As he handed the peach to the cowboy, the young man remarked -- with awe in his voice -- "It's been a long time since I've seen a peach!"

The pleasure and amazement in his voice and eyes was payment enough for that treasured fruit of Alabama we had carried so far.

We stopped for lunch somewhere there in Kansas, searching a small town at an exit for the restaurant with the full parking lot and the most dusty cars and trucks.  That would be where the good eating was.

Sure enough, the place was packed, and everyone (but us) seemed to know each other.  Friendly voices echoed through the room, teasing the waitress, laughing with each other.  Nicknames and first names were all I heard.  These were good people.

That night we stopped at a rest area alongside the interstate.  In the middle of the night, I opened my eyes to see the grill of an 18-wheeler sliding past the window of the van where we had been sleeping.  A chill went through me.  It was like being in a lagoon swimming with whales.  There were huge trucks, all jostling for position in that small space, escaping a bad storm on the open road in the comparative safety of the rest area.  I jabbed my husband in the ribs and yelled, "Get up!  Get up!  Look!"

We got the van off the parking lot and up on the grass and sidewalk, and we were safe from the huge beasts crowding what had been a small fishbowl.

Eventually we got the goats -- our 3 and the other family's one.  Stopping at a welcome center to milk the doe in milk, we drew a lot of stares.  We came over the Wind River Range, and I drove all night across Nebraska while my husband slept.  I saw the lights of Cabela's way off there to the left as I cruised through the blackness in the backdraft of a tractor-trailer rig, waking my husband only as we drew near the city of Lincoln.

Funny how, of all the stories we brought home from that little 2-day quest, the one that my mind turns to most often is the scene in the restaurant, with a lot of friendly people who all seemed to know each other.  Small-town America.

It seems now, looking around me, that much has been lost in 16 years.  It seems now that the richness and the friendliness of America is fading away.  Our government has robbed us of our wealth and given it to other nations.  Our people have forgotten we are all family...we are all Americans.  A lot of people who are not Americans and never want to be Americans have come in among us, weakening us as a people.  Foreigners have bought land among us, robbing us of that heritage, too.

Most of all, a whole generation has grown up that knows not God.

Oh, there have always been a few atheists among us...  usually people who were too intellectually lazy to search God out, or angry with Him for not doing or being what they wanted.  But now there is a whole generation who not only don't know Him but have no interest at all in spiritual matters.  They feed their flesh, and that's all that seems to matter.

And that lack of God makes people selfish and angry.  There is too much anger among us now, and not enough familiar affection.

I don't know all that's been lost, but I sense the lack.  I miss the hope and joy that we once had as a people.  I miss "nation," and I hate "homeland."  Something's changed.  Something's gone.  And I weep with regret at the loss.

http://dunlapnews.com/opinion.cgi

Tue Jan 5 16:12:28 2016
Since the inception of the Republic, American presidents have used their office as a bully pulpit to sway public opinion in their favor on their pet issues. Today, however, we watched something new. Barack Obama held a meeting to announce his planned actions to restrict access to firearms in the United States. He did not try to sway public opinion, or influence Congress to cooperate with him on the issue, he actually set about to make law.

From the beginning, the event was orchestrated to give Mr. Obama the appearance of overwhelming support for his initiative: The presence of the press was reduced to cameras only, and the audience was populated with Obama's supporters and those passionate to increase gun control. As a result, there was abundant applause, and no difficult questions asked, such as How, exactly, does the executive branch take it upon itself to write law, when the Constitution reserves that authority to the legislative branch?

Some of the key provisions of Mr. Obama's new "law" include:

o The hiring of more than 230 new employees by the FBI to assist with background checks.
o Authorization for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATFE) to spend $4 million to enhance its database of gun purchases.
o Allocation of $500 million in federal funds to improve treatment of mental illness (this would require Congressional approval).
o Prohibiting the purchase of firearms by people with a medical history of mental instability (ever taken Prozac, or told a doctor you have been depressed?), or if their name appears on the government's no-fly list.
o Expanding the definition of "firearms seller" to include a lot of people currently free to sell firearms to individuals, at gun shows and through sites like http://www.gunownersclub.com/listings/ammunition/rifle/ This means that if you want to sell one of your firearms, you would now have to secure a federal firearms license to advertise it on a site like that one and run a background check on the buyer.

This last provision is the most troubling, because it actually makes a law.

Many people are understandably concerned about the violence of our present day, but -- contrary to Mr. Obama's assertions at his announcement today -- that violence is not confined to just the United States. Mass murders happen in many countries, most of them with much more restrictive gun laws than we have in this country. The Islamic terror attack in Paris is still fresh in the minds of people around the world. And the attack on a Norwegian youth camp in 2011 took the lives of over 80 people.

Also noteworthy is the fact that none of the perpetrators of mass killings in the United States in recent years would be stopped from buying guns by Mr. Obama's proposed new law. Some of the guns were stolen, most of the killers could pass a background check.

The only reason Americans in most states can obtain firearms easily is because the right to "keep and bear arms" is written into our Constitution. It is often said that the Second Amendment enforces the First Amendment:

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Second Amendment

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

In 1791, when these Amendments to the Constitution were ratified, popular understanding held that the "militia" was every able-bodied man. The founding fathers saw the right to keep and bear arms as insurance against tyranny.

They were not particularly concerned about the ability to go hunting, or even to defend your family from robbers; they were concerned about the government getting out of hand, and the people needing to set it straight. An unarmed citizenry has had that option taken away from them. They have been emasculated.

The problem with Mr. Obama's proposition today is not only that it "infringes" further on the people's Second Amendment right but that it improperly extends the executive branch's power, infringing on the Constitutionally mandated powers of the people's Congress. And that division is not in the Amendments, but right there in the main body of the Constitution.

Judge Andrew Napolitano, in comments following Mr. Obama's announcement, postulated that this conflict will be settled in the courts, when someone arrested under this unconstitutional edict has the money, the support, and the legal representation to challenge it to the Supreme Court.

Too bad our Congress can not find it in themselves to stand up and challenge such an act and put the office of the president back in the place it is supposed to be -- in balance as one of three branches of government, and not the greatest among equals.

Many months ago, I was reading a news item about an economic collapse in a country in South America, and one of the people interviewed said, "We can't even buy soap..."  A comment below the article said, "You don't need soap," and had a link to a blog about washing with no soap or shampoo.

I no longer have a link to the original blog, but the gist of the essay was that the writer met a man one time that seemed to always be surrounded by women.  The women just seemed drawn to him somehow.  The man had beautiful black hair, but otherwise had no cologne, aftershave, etc.  When the writer asked him why women were attracted to him, he said he used no soap or shampoo, and the natural pheromones produced by his body is what attracted the opposite sex.

The writer went home and threw out his soaps and shampoos and started washing with just water, as he'd been directed.  Soon, the body odor was becoming annoying, but he persevered.  Then one day after he had spent a hot afternoon working in the yard and was covered with sweat, he came in and showered off with just water, and amazingly enough, he no longer had a body odor!

So, curious to see if this method would work, I tried washing with just water.  I had a slight body odor and my hair was not as silky as I liked.  Then, I started a new exercise regimen.  I made up a YouTube playlist of some good, jazzy songs that I liked and started exercising to the music.  The first time I did that, I went and showered -- with no soap -- and amazingly enough, I no longer had any body odor!  This lack of stench lasted into the next day, as well!

Now, I have to put a disclaimer here:  I am not interested in attracting any members of the opposite sex other than my husband!  The reason I am interested in this method of hygiene is because we spend a lot of money on soaps and shampoos, and if I can get satisfactory results without them, that saves me money.  Plus, there may come a time when I don't have access to a store full of health and beauty aids, and it would be good to have already experimented with staying clean without them.

My little experiment confirmed to me what the writer of the essay had found:  That God made our body to stay clean all on its own, without any chemicals, but that we are meant to get out and sweat in the out-of-doors before we come in to wash.

A secondary benefit to this method is I avoid daily exposure to man-made substances that could be in the soaps that might be harmful to my body.  So many people seem to be sick or on medication these days, and half the time nobody knows why.

Which brings me to Health and Hygiene Tip #2...

Don't use deodorant.  Many of the deodorants on the market have aluminum in them, and aluminum has been implicated in the rising incidence of Alzheimer's Disease in the United States.  If you get used to washing with just water as I've explained above, this would do away with your need to use deodorants.

To eliminate the ingestion of aluminum, I even avoid using aluminum cookware in my kitchen.  Stainless steel, cast iron, and glass (Pyrex) are my cookware of choice.

We can not avoid all exposures to toxins in our environment, but the closer we stay to nature and the way God intended our bodies to function, the healthier we'll be.

Elderberry syrup is a traditional flu remedy. Studies have shown that it stops replication of the flu virus.  Ever since I ran across this recipe for Elderberry syrup, I have made up a batch of it every fall, to keep on hand through flu season.

I am posting the recipe and dosage here, and I have uploaded a  YouTube video  that gives you step-by-step instructions on how to make it.  A tip of the hat to "Summerthyme," who shared this on the forum several years ago.

ELDERBERRY SYRUP

Ingredients:
7 cups elderberry juice
8 3/4 cups honey
3 cups 80-proof vodka

To reconstitute dry berries, put 1 cup of berries in a quart jar and pour 2 cups of boiling water over them.  If they soak it up, add a bit more. Place in the refrigerator or a cool, dark place for 24-48 hours.  Then strain through a clean cloth, squeezing every bit of liquid you can out, even twisting the cloth to get the last drop.  It will take 3 or more quarts of berries to make the 7 cups of liquid called-for in the recipe.  (I use this same method with fresh berries.  ~ G.F.)

Warm the elderberry juice to hot, but not boiling temperature -- 150-180F.  Stir in the honey, and continue stirring until it is completely dissolved..

Remove from heat and stir in the vodka.

Pour into sterile jars or bottles.  (Sterilize by boiling Mason jars for 5-10 minutes.)

Cap and label.  Store in a cool, dark place.

DOSAGE:  As a preventative during flu season, take 1-2 tablespoons twice a day.  As treatment for flu, take same dose every 3-4 hours until symptom-free for a week.  For children under 12, give half the adult dose.

For toddlers and infants, talk to your physician.  But, lacking that, 1 teaspoon given at the same intervals as the adult dose should be adequate.

ALTERNATIVE (NON-ALCOHOLIC) RECIPE

7 cups elderberry juice
14 cups honey

Follow instructions for original recipe, just leaving out the vodka.

ALTERNATIVE (NO HONEY) RECIPE
(Best for babies under a year old.)

7 cups elderberry juice
11 1/2 cups sugar.

Stir until the sugar is dissolved in the hot juice, then bottle.

NOTE:  Non-alcoholic syrup should be refrigerated, but the recipe with the vodka can be stored in any cool,dark place.

I have made this recipe with wild berries I picked myself, and with dried berries from Monterey Bay Spice Co., with equally good results.

Here in Tennessee, fall gradually is creeping in.  We had rain, then a couple of dry, cool weeks -- beautiful days, but the land grew dry.  Then lots of rain.  And now, crystal blue skies streaked with white mare's tails at high altitudes.  Cool, breezy days, cold nights.  And there is mist on the vibrantly colored mountains.

I love autumn....

Babylon is Fallen

1And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

4And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. 5For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double to her double according to her works: in the cup which she has filled fill to her double. 7How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she said in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. 8Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judges her.

Lament over Babylon

9And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall mourn her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, 10Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is your judgment come.

~ from Revelation, the Holy Bible, New King James Version

Two months ago, we had no goats.  Now we have four!  On Memorial Day, my husband and I trekked to Murfreesboro to take a look at some Lamancha does that a sheep farmer had picked up at the sale barn.  We came home with "Memorial Day," or Mimi -- a yearling first-freshener with a case of the scours.  That night, we went to a neighboring county to look at a Lamancha-Saanen cross doeling that a lady had for sale.  We came home with "Valentine."  I named her that because she had been born near Valentine's Day.  Neither of these were registered.

I had a buckling on order from a breeder up past Knoxville, and late one evening we met the people halfway, at a truck stop, and carried Morning Star from their truck to ours out in the parking lot.

Even with one milker (producing a quart a day), and two young stock, I still lacked a milk goat that would produce enough for the household.  So...one more purchase was in order.  About a month ago, I bought a 6-year-old show goat from a breeder up near Knoxville.  Celine is a registered Lamancha doe with excellent bloodlines and good production.  Only problem was the breeder neglected to inform me that she was used to machine milking.  The first time I milked her by hand, it was a rodeo!

And so, our little herd has taken shape, and these are some pictures of what our current milkers look like -- after a clip, some good feed, and a little TLC...

It is mid-July, and the garden is in full swing.  Even in all the busy labor of keeping a garden productive, and harvesting what it's producing, it is good sometimes to pause and enjoy the beauty that it freely offers up, day-to-day, for us, its human caretakers....

And he said to me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright: for to you am I now sent. ~ Daniel 10:11

Why was Daniel greatly beloved?  An angelic being speaks those words to him on several different occasions in the book of Daniel.

In Ezekiel, God makes reference to Daniel, Noah, and Job as examples of the epitome of righteousness among mankind:

Son of man, when the land sins against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out my hand on it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine on it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, said the Lord GOD. ~ Ezekiel 14:13, 14

Noah.  Daniel.  Job.  What was so noteworthy about these three men?  Apparently, God thought they were special.

Noah was the eighth man from Adam.  In such a short span of time, the earth was corrupted.  Humankind was so wicked that they were in danger of killing each other off.  So, God rescued the one man he found worthy of the breath in his nostrils, along with his family, and he destroyed the rest in the Flood (Genesis 6-9).

Noah is described as a “preacher of righteousness” in the New Testament (2nd Peter 2:5) The Greek word for preacher in this verse means a herald, proclaimer, crier, preacher.  In other words, Noah proclaimed the truth, calling people to repent and turn back to God.  For 100 years he worked on the construction of the ark, and it is likely that he preached – begged his countrymen to repent – that whole time.

When the flood waters subsided, and Noah and his family left the ark, the first thing he did was build an altar and sacrifice.  Of all the animals in all the earth, the only ones that survived were the animals Noah and his family cared for that long year in the ark.  They went into the ark with seven of each clean animal.  That would have been the cattle, sheep, goats, deer, etc.  As a goatherd, I know that only one male is needed for every dozen or so females, so I’m guessing that the “seven” of each clean animal was a male and six females, and by the time they came off the ark they probably had already given birth to their young.

Still, there were few animals at that point, and Noah could have chickened out – saved back those few to multiply.  But instead, he believed God had everything under control and was well able to make sure those few multiplied into millions.  He took some of these animals and offered them as a sacrifice to God, and it says that God was pleased.  Noah believed God.  He believed him when he told him a flood was coming.  He believed him for 100 years while he built the ark.  He believed him when he went in the ark and God closed the door.  And he believed him when he started a new life in a new world.

The story of Job is one of those that many Christians superstitiously avoid reading, for fear God will do the same thing to them.  (See the book of Job.)  God brought Job to the attention of Satan (Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil?)

Now, why would God do that?  Why would he intentionally direct Satan’s attention to that just man?  It’s almost as if he gave the enemy permission to tempt Job.

Well, of course that’s what he did.  God provoked Satan to attack Job – by God’s own admission, a “perfect and upright man.”

God did it.

God put his best man to the test.  In the same way that a coach will put his best athlete to a task that no one else can do, or a drill sergeant will require more of his best recruit.  The best receive the greatest test.  Job surely was put to the hardest test imaginable.  He lost his wealth.  He lost his children.  He lost his livestock and everything he had worked for all his life.  He lost everything he owned, and in the end he lost even his health and the respect of his wife and friends.  But Job never turned away from God.  He trusted God, and God proved himself faithful.  He restored what had been taken, and he honored this faithful servant before all people.

And Daniel?  The man best beloved?  What would you do if the Archangel Gabriel referred to you as “highly esteemed” and “most beloved?”  What an honor!  How did Daniel merit such an honor?

Daniel was just a boy when he was taken captive by the foreign armies that besieged Jerusalem and destroyed it.  He was from a noble or royal family and was taken to the palace of the heathen king to be prepared for service at court.

Right off the bat, this young man stood his ground for God, asking that he and his companions be spared from eating the king’s food, preferring instead to eat only vegetables and drink only water, rather than be defiled by eating unclean things.  And when the king determined to put all the wise men in the capital to death for not interpreting his dream, Daniel stood and asked the officer in charge to give him a few days to consult with his God and see if he might be able to interpret the dream.  When he was successful in his interpretation, Daniel was elevated to a position of great authority in that foreign land.

Daniel served under many kings and distinguished himself in many ways, but a time came when he was put to the test.  His jealous peers set him up, to be condemned by a king that actually had a great deal of respect for Daniel.  This is the famous story of Daniel in the lion’s den.  When the lions refused to attack Daniel, the king took him out and threw in his accusers, who were immediately ripped to pieces by the ferocious beasts.

“My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me,” Daniel said, “for as much as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no hurt.”

Daniel was faithful – both to God and to the rulers that he served.  He was courageous, standing by his God and his commands, even at the risk of his life.  And he believed God was well able to save him.

These three great men of the Bible were real people.  They were men we should admire and aspire to imitate.  All three risked their lives, their liberty, and their reputation to honor God.  Most of all, they believed God.  They trusted God.  And God honored that.

The Bible says that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).  Faith -- trust in God -- is the key.

Abraham was called the friend of God, and scripture says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”  God also put Abraham to the test – he asked him to sacrifice the child of laughter.  But Abraham believed God loved him and loved his son, and he did not withhold even that precious thing from him.

In Titus 2:14 it says that Jesus gave himself for us that he might make for himself a people that are truly his.  The New King James Version says it this way:

“…that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people.”

A peculiar people.  I guess that’s what God is looking for – someone out of the ordinary.  Someone who dares to believe that God means us good.

A man or woman who knows God and trusts him even to death can be one who is greatly beloved.  We can, in God’s eyes, be highly esteemed.  Are you willing to chance it?

The garden is coming in, and after you've made salads for a week, and had fried squash and onions for two, you may be ready to try something different.  Here is my recipe for a Summer Squash Casserole.

(A little brag here....when I made this casserole today, everything in it -- except the butter, cheese, and bacon -- was grown or raised on my little homestead!)

SUMMER SQUASH CASSEROLE

You will need a large oven-proof baking dish or casserole to make this recipe.  You either need a lid or aluminum foil to cover.

Pre-heat oven to 350o.  Place 2 tablespoons of butter in baking dish and set in oven to melt.

INGREDIENTS:

• Butter
• Yellow crookneck squash (3-4 medium size)
• Zucchini squash (1 medium size)
• 1 green tomato
• 4 slices cooked bacon
• 2 large eggs
• 1 pint fresh milk
• 2 T. flour
  
• 4 oz. pepper jack cheese
• 4 slices American cheese
• Salt and pepper

Wash, dry, and slice vegetables in a large bowl.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

 In a small bowl, scramble eggs, then add crumbled bacon, milk, flour, and diced pepper jack cheese.  Mix thoroughly.  Pour into vegetables and mix thoroughly with spoon or clean hands.

Remove baking dish from the oven and make sure sides and bottom are buttered.  Pour mixture into the dish and place in preheated oven.  Bake, covered, for 1 hour.  Turn off oven, arrange American cheese slices on top of casserole and return to warm oven to melt.

Serves 6.